310 THE ARGONAUT. 



valuable to painters in water-colours, is prepared. And 

 it is a curious fact (tested by Dr. Buckland) that the 

 contents of the ink-bag of fossil species retain all the 

 chromatic property, and have been used with success in 

 the arts. The sepia commonly in use is prepared from 

 an Indian species; but the Cuttle-fishes of our own 

 shores yield an equally valuable dye. 



No British Cuttle-fish possesses an external shell, 

 though furnished with an internal one, in the shape of a 

 horny or calcareous, lanceolate, or somewhat boat-shaped 

 body, lodged in a cavity of the mantle ; exactly analo- 

 gous to the shelly plates of such Mollusca as Aplysia 

 and Limax. But one of the most beautiful of all shells 

 the Argonaut or Paper Nautilus is the coat of an 

 animal of this class, not very unlike a common Cuttle- 

 fish in form, and having an organization essentially 

 similar. Alas for poetry ! the stories of the Argonaut, 

 believed for nearly two thousand years, are now ex- 

 ploded. Modern observers have clearly shown that the 

 Argonaut does not make use of its expanded arms as 

 sails, or its tapering legs as oars, or of its keeled shell 

 as a boat ; but, on the contrary, that it passes most of 

 its time crawling on the bottom of the sea like a snail, 

 with its shell turned keel upwards ; and that when it 

 does swim through the water, as it can do with great 

 speed, its arms and legs are applied to purposes very- 

 different from oars or sails. The arms (sails) are closely 

 pressed to the surface of the shell, which they cover 

 completely with a fleshy coat ; and the taper legs (oars) 

 are brought together and directed in a straight line 

 from the head. And thus prepared for swimming, the 



